Paper towels are useful not just for draining fried food and wiping up spills – they can be used as electric tea light holders as well, making perfect accents for outdoor summer parties. These tea light holders are really easy to make. You can use white paper towels off the roll, or you can dye them using water and fruit juice powder or food coloring. If you’re not too particular about using food-safe coloring, you can also use a watercolor or acrylic wash.

You will need:
* Two-ply kitchen paper towels
* Scissors
* Electric tea light
* Small paper doily (optional)

For dyeing:
* Shallow tray
* Half cup of water
* Food coloring or fruit juice powder
* Clothesline or wire rack for drying

To dye the paper towels and doilies:
In a small container of water, add a few drops of food coloring, or mix in ¼ teaspoon of fruit juice powder, adjusting the amount to get the desired strength. Pour the mixture into a shallow tray. Dip a paper towel (or doily) into the mixture and leave it submerged for about a minute to allow it to absorb the color. Carefully remove it from the tray, allow the excess liquid to drip back into the tray, then dry the paper towel on a clothesline or wire rack.

To make the electric tea light holder:
If your paper towel is not square, fold the paper towel diagonally so that two adjacent sides are aligned. Cut off the excess to form a square sheet. Unfold the paper, and fold it again along the other diagonal to find the center of the paper towel. Open up the paper towel and lay it flat on your work surface (photos 1-2).

   

Working with one corner at a time, fold the corners so that they meet at center. Fold the corners again towards the center to form a smaller square, then fold the corners towards the center a third time. Flip the paper towel over, then fold down the corners towards the center (photos 3-5).

      

Take the electric tea light and put it on the paper towel (photo 6). Holding both tea light and paper towel together, turn them over, then carefully fold or press down the paper towel around the base of the tea light so that the paper towel follows the shape of the tea light (photo 7).

   

Keeping the paper towel and tea light together, carefully peel back each corner of the paper towel, away from the center and down along the side of the tea light, working by layer around base until you peel back the last layer (photos 8-9).

   

Turn the tea light holder and paper towel over, then carefully curl the points of the paper towel outwards to form a flower (photo 10). Put the tea light and holder onto a small paper lace doily to complete the look (photo 11).